Current practice for determining new well locations in shale plays is to drill near a good production well. There is widespread recognition that key shale properties influence production rates and the recovery of hydrocarbon volumes for the well, but there are no known applications of these properties and their variances over area and depth to guide well placement. Operators therefore, use the production history of existing wells to build a regional production quality map of existing wells. The production history of existing wells requires 6 months to establish the quality of the shale properties and the advisability of making a subsequent investment in the nearby acreage, which degrades the efficiency of “factory” drilling programs. Evidence that offset wells near a production well do not always replicate the initial well's production performance exists for every U.S. shale play. As a consequence, forecasting drilling results based on the production history of existing wells is not reliable and many disappointing wells are drilled.